Several suggestions have been made for providing a protective visor to a safety helmet as a replacement of safety goggles which are considered less than satisfactory. In the field of mining, for example, where fragments of materials are sometimes sprayed into a miner's face, eye protection is essential. Similar protection is important in other fields of work in which, if a visor is not used, the result can be painful to the user and, in some cases, harmful, such as the loss of one or both eyes.
This has resulted in various protectors having been designed in which a transparent acetate visor is mounted integrally with a safety helmet in a manner as to be retracted all the way within or over the helmet. However, these designs have been found costly in that the entire helmet with visor must be replaced whenever the acetate visor is damaged or scratched.